


Things That Kids Remember

by Specificity



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 18:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10747380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Specificity/pseuds/Specificity
Summary: Tumblr prompt: "I die a little on the inside every time you try to nickname yourself."Robert attempts to come up with a nickname for himself while Aaron and Liv point out all the reasons why it's not the best idea.





	Things That Kids Remember

“Bert,” Robert blurts out, seemingly out of nowhere, but it’s obvious he’s been mulling it over for the last five minutes since he fell silent, the paperwork across his knee and the arm of the settee forgotten.

“What?” Aaron asks, feigning confusion as he begrudgingly pulls his gaze away from the car magazine he’s reading.

“As a nickname. Bert.”

“Bert’s not a cool nickname, idiot,” Liv chimes in, homework spread out across the living room floor. “We said cool nicknames, not lame ones.”

“It’s a step up from Rob,” Robert says defensively.

Aaron looks from Robert to Liv and back again, face scrunching up with distaste.

“I saw that!” Robert accuses, and Aaron watches as his forehead seems to double in size, lifting up into his hairline with the unspoken question.

“Rob’s what your family call you.”

“You are family,” Robert points out light-heartedly, teasing, as he always does whenever the topic comes up.

“You know what I mean.”

“Right, so what’s wrong with Bert?” 

“What’s not wrong with Bert more like,” Liv mutters, trying to conceal her amusement behind a maths textbook and failing miserably.

“You’d seriously want people to call you Bert?” Aaron asks, both bemused and amused.

“Why not?”

“The first thing I think of when I hear that name is Bert and Ernie,” Liv muses, her smile waning as she thinks on it. “Is that what you want people to associate you with?” she asks, and then, laughing, she adds, “Well, you are a muppet, I suppose.”

Aaron stifles a snort of amusement, bringing the sleeve of his hoodie up to his face to hide his smile.

“And, well, they are gay,” Liv adds as an afterthought.

“You what?” Robert asks. “They’re not gay.”

“They are,” Aaron says, right shoulder shrugging, as if that settles it.

“Since when?”

“Uh, since always?”

“Well, actually, Bert’s been known to show interest in the lady muppets, so, technically, Ernie is gay, and Bert is bisexual,” Liv informs them, clearly giving this some thought, and then adds, “You know what, Bert’s really growing on me.”

Aaron doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he’s definitely itching to get up, walk out of the room, and leave them both to it.

“And suddenly I hate the name,” Robert mumbles to himself a little dejectedly, as if his entire existence up until this point has been shaken from the foundations upwards.

“There’s always Bob,” Liv suggests, trying to be helpful.

“Yeah, no, thanks, there’s already enough Bob to go around this village.”

“Good point,” she agrees, shrugging as she leans down to scribble in her maths book.

“What about Suggers?”

“Nah,” Aaron says, a little too quickly. “Suggers is what I used to call your brother when I wound him up.”

“You used to wind Andy up?” Robert asks, confused, clearly never having witnessed this. “That’s my job.”

“Yeah, well, you weren’t around back then,” Aaron says, glancing down at his magazine to hide his discomfort. “We never used to get on, not when I first came back to the village. He hated me hanging out with Vic, so we used to goad each other on. It didn’t help when he found out we slept together.”

“You what?” Robert asks, a few papers flying to the floor as he pushes himself forward in his seat, turning more to his right to look at him. “You and Vic?”

“You didn’t know?” Aaron asks, aiming for innocent as he nervously chews his lip; he’s always assumed Victoria filled him in on that piece of information, especially since she filled him in on everything else.

“You slept with my sister?”

“This isn’t awkward at all,” Liv pipes up, and she’s looking from one to the other when Aaron glances her way, as if she’s watching an intense tennis match; her homework lies abandoned.

“Yeah. I thought she told you. It was back when we were kids. But after I found out about her and Daz, I—“

“Victoria and Darren?”

“Oh, god,” Liv helpfully says, and she looks as if she wants the floor to open up and devour her whole; Aaron longs for the same, if he’s honest.

“That’s her story to tell,” Aaron tells him, trying to be firm, which seems to do the trick. He watches as Robert’s frown deepens, and then he seems to deflate entirely, melting back into the settee cushions, shifting the paperwork aside. Aaron knows Robert feels bad for everything he missed while he was away, blames himself for not being around to be more of a big brother to Victoria, so he leaves him to this thoughts; he knows it’ll be a subject that comes up later on when Robert’s in one of his more petty moods.

“What else is there?” Liv asks, Aaron and Robert both looking across at her, grateful for the distraction, even if they are a little slow to catch up. “Nicknames! We’ve ruled out Rob, Bert, Bob, and Suggers.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Aaron groans, closing the magazine on his lap and chucking it onto the coffee table.

“What nickname do you want?” Robert asks Liv.

“Uh, my name is my nickname, idiot.”

“What? Oh,” Robert says, his thinking face back in gear, clearly relieved to have anything but the past conquests of his little sister at the front of his mind; Aaron doesn’t doubt he’ll feel sorry for himself over it later.

“Olive,” Aaron says, grinning, because he knows she hates being called that.

“Don’t start with that again,” Liv warns him.

“Ignore him, Liv, he’s just jealous,” Robert says, smirking as he looks at Aaron. “We can make nicknames out of our names and he can’t.”

Aaron groans, knowing what he’s starting, even if Robert doesn’t.

“Well, there is one,” Liv teases, crawling across the floor and over her school things to get closer to the settee.

“There is?” Robert asks with interest.

“There’s—“ Liv starts.

“Don’t you dare,” Aaron warns her, and he means it; if she goes there, he’ll swing for her.

“—Ron.”

“Ron?” The expression on Robert’s face is priceless, and if it weren’t for the conversation ahead, Aaron would find it hilarious.

“Don’t ask,” Aaron tells Robert. “Please, don’t ask,” he begs.

“Please, do ask,” Liv eggs Robert on, laughing as she does. “Why don’t you tell him, Aaron?”

“No. And you’re not, either.”

“I think he should know, especially since we’ve just ruined his childhood.”

“How have we ruined his childhood?”

“We told him Bert and Ernie are an old married couple, duh,” she says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, and even Aaron can’t help cracking a smile in spite of himself as the tiniest bit of colouring comes out in Robert’s face.

“Shut up,” Robert utters, but Aaron can tell he’s not going to let their mocking distract him. “So, go on, then, where does Ron come from?”

“Aaron. Ron. Get it?” Liv asks, speaking slowly, enunciating every word more than necessary. “That, and he always wanted to be Ron Weasley.”

“Ron Weasley.”

“Yeah, you know, from the H—“

“I know who Ron Weasley is.”

“Well, then. We used to read the books when we were little, Aaron begged Mum to get them for us, and because he loved Ron so much, I used to call him it.”

“Oh, god, kill me now,” Aaron groans, sinking further into the settee.

“You used to read Harry Potter to her?” Robert asks, grinning.

“Yes,” Aaron admits, begrudgingly, and he hates how much they’re both enjoying this.

“Whenever I try to get you to watch the films, you always say you hate them.”

“He doesn’t,” Liv says, shrugging as Aaron glares daggers at her. “Well, you don’t! Or, you didn’t.”

“I can’t believe you even remember that,” Aaron says, though it’s more like he wishes she didn’t.

“Well, I do. I remember how you used to argue with Mum over who got to read to me before bed, so we could carry on from where we left off. And how we used to get so lost in that world.”

Aaron frowns, not because those aren’t fond memories he’s treasured, despite not having been able to read the books since, but because of why he longed to get lost in another world, or why he felt the need to take her there with him. It makes him wonder what else she remembers that she never speaks about.

“I remember how we agreed you were a Gryffindor,” Liv continues, smiling, as if she too treasures their shared memories, “And I was a Hufflepuff.”

“Hufflepuff?” Robert asks, holding back his amusement. “Why would you want to be a Hufflepuff?”

“Oi, watch it! There’s nothing wrong with being a Hufflepuff.” But she shrugs. “Aaron chose it.”

“What? Why?”

Aaron shrugs. “She used to be so sweet and innocent. No idea what happened.”

Liv glares at him, and Aaron relaxes a little, letting their light banter wash back over him.

“What house were you, Robert?” Liv asks, her expression softening towards Aaron before she turns away to look at Robert instead.

“Obvious,” Robert says, as Aaron says, “Easy.”

“Ravenclaw,” Robert adds, as Aaron finishes, “Slytherin.”

Liv bursts out laughing at the pair of them, and Aaron realises his face must mirror Robert’s, because both of them are brought up short by their answers, and are thoroughly questioning the other’s lapse in judgement.

“Why am I a Slyterhin?” Robert asks, clearly put out.

“Because you’re an evil mastermind,” Liv tells him.

“Liv,” Aaron warns, but he knows she’s joking, and he can tell Robert’s not taking it to heart.

“No, come on,” Robert says, turning that much further towards him, bringing his right leg up so his knee rests beside Aaron’s left thigh with his foot dangling over the edge of the cushion. “Why Slytherin?”

“You’re charming, ambitious, cunning, resourceful, determined, and you’ve got good self-preservation skills,” Aaron lists off, shrugging. “Just because most Slytherins turn out evil, doesn’t mean they all do.”

Robert considers this, and then shrugs with his head. “Fair enough.”

“You seriously thought you were a Ravenclaw?” Liv asks.

“I like books,” Robert points out, lamely, adding, “I was always the clever one in the family. Dad and Andy were all about the farm, but I always longed for something more, like Mum.”

“Good call,” Liv says, making a face. “The idea of you working on a farm is weird. And you’d scare the life out of the animals.”

Aaron laughs, but quickly stops at the look on Robert’s face.

“She said it, not me,” Aaron childishly points out, fighting the smile he’s losing a battle to, and when Robert finally joins in their laughter, it resurfaces easily.

“And you are the bravest person I know,” Robert tells Aaron, pride in his voice, as he reaches out to take his hand, playing with their fingers before sliding them together. “You were always bound to be a Gryffindor.”

Aaron smiles, looking down at their hands, and he gives Robert’s an affectionate squeeze. “It explains a lot,” he says, feeling the corner of his mouth tugging up into a smirk. “What with you being a Slytherin, and me being a Gryffindor, it was never going to be easy, was it?”

“No, I guess not,” Robert says, smiling, their eyes locked and hearts melting, and the rest of the world falling away.

“Oh, gross, pack it in, will you?” Liv chimes in, breaking their moment. “If it means avoiding all the drama, I’d rather be a Hufflepuff.”

“Well, you are kind and loyal,” Robert tells her, looking as if he’s trying to remember the rest of the traits. “You do work hard when you work at all, you’re not afraid of getting involved when the situation requires it, and you put up with us, so you’re obviously patient and tolerant.”

Liv practically beams, as if she’s never been so complimented in her entire life, and it breaks Aaron’s heart to realise she probably hasn’t. He makes a note to slip in the odd compliment here and there from now on, though he does praise her when she deserves it, and he knows Robert does, too, in his own way.

“That doesn’t answer the question, though,” Robert points out, pulling them all out back out of their little moment.

“What question?” Liv asks before Aaron can beat her to it.

“What’s a cool nickname to have?” Robert asks, reminding them, and both Aaron and Liv groan in union.

“I die a little on the inside every time you try to nickname yourself,” Aaron says, louder than he means to, because Liv is sniggering as she crawls back to her heap of homework, and Robert frowns, as if he’s deeply offended.

“So why don’t you nickname me instead, then?” Robert suggests, sliding the knee that’s not already on the settee across Aaron’s lap, pushing himself up until he’s straddling him, and he leans down low, nose rubbing gently against Aaron’s. “Make it more meaningful.”

“Well,” Aaron starts, considering the possibilities, “I’m sure I can think of something.”

“You’re being gross again,” Liv shouts, turning away as if it will burn the image of them out of her mind.

“You know what you can do, then, don’t you?” Robert says over his shoulder with heavy implications.

“Yeah,” Liv says, gathering up her books and papers, and quickly shoving them into her backpack. “I can vacate the room, and then tomorrow explain to the teachers exactly why my homework’s not finished.”

“If you get expelled, don’t think we’re grovelling to the headmaster again.”

Liv shrugs, getting to her feet. “We both know it was Aaron’s sob story that got me back in, so don’t flatter yourself.”

Aaron can’t help it, he laughs, loud and free, and catches sight of the grin across Liv’s face as she makes her escape.

“At least something good came from what I went through, eh?” Aaron asks, jokingly, but his laughter dies as he focuses solely on the way Robert’s looking at him. “What?”

“You,” Robert says, his voice as soft as his gaze, and he looks happy, subtly glows with it in a way he’s never quite managed until recently. “You truly are a Gryffindor.”

Aaron groans, but he’s smiling as he gives Robert a light shove. “And you truly are a Slytherin.”

“Do you want to know a secret?” Robert asks, lowering his voice as he leans in closer to whisper by Aaron’s ear. “I always knew I was a Slytherin.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Robert shrugs, smiling down at Aaron from where he’s still straddling him, and there’s so much there in his expression, a mixture of emotions, good and bad, all fighting against each other. “But I thought it was for all the wrong reasons.”

“Now you know the truth,” Aaron points out, shrugging with his mouth as well as his shoulders. “Slytherins deserve to be loved and wanted, too.”

“Idiot,” Robert mutters before he leans all the way in, tenderly bringing their lips together in a light, lingering kiss, and Aaron can feel Robert’s smile forming against his mouth. “We’re a Ravenclaw away from a full house.”

“We’re not getting a cat,” Aaron mumbles against his lips, which are still brushing despite the kiss ending. “Two against one, me and Liv vote dog.”

“Who said I meant either?” Robert asks, which leaves Aaron to look at him, really look at him.

“You mean…?”

“I never got to read Harry Potter to my little sister,” Robert says, and Aaron hears the regret in the words, sees the sadness in his eyes, both of which he knows the feeling of well himself. “Maybe we could read them together.”

“Maybe,” Aaron says, not dismissing the idea, but he’s not sure any of them are quite ready for a new addition to their little family yet. “Liv never got to read them to anyone, either, and I never did finish the last book.”

“That settles it, then.”

“Yeah. But if you ever – and I mean ever – call me Ron again, I’ll send the whole lot of you back.”

“No nicknames,” Robert says decisively.

“No nicknames,” Aaron agrees.

Smiling, Aaron rests his left hand on Robert’s thigh and slides his right around his neck, leaning up to capture his lips in another kiss.

As the kiss ends, Aaron asks, “Bed, Mr Dingle?”

Robert reaches out to take Aaron’s hand in his own, carefully extracting himself from the settee, and he pulls Aaron up with him, “Bed, Mr Sugden.”

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up being more dialogue than I intended, and it got carried away with itself, but have it, anyway. It's no where near as adorable as it was in my head, but I'm rubbish at working things into short pieces.


End file.
